tracking

If you've ever spent time working at your local Starbucks, you'll probably be familiar with the Coffee Guilt Security Dilemma. It's the feeling that you should probably buy another drink, because you don't want to be labeled a freeloader, yet you're worried about leaving your laptop on the table while you queue. Do you pack everything up and risk someone stealing your spot by the outlet? French Internet of Things firm Sense wants to assuage your paranoid guilt, and it's doing that with the $29 GuardPeanut.

We’ve all seen the marketing materials and heard the spiels. Today’s generation of wearable devices, from fitness trackers to smartwatches with health-related features, can help you keep a healthy lifestyle and even lose weight along the way. But according to a two-year study that was started way back in 2010, that isn’t exactly the case. In fact, they might actually be counter-productive to the goal, with wearers losing less weight than people who undergo the same amount of activity but take the manual route of keeping track of themselves.

This week the folks behind the original Tile bluetooth tracker have introduced another unit - Tile Slim. This bluetooth tracker is as thin as two credit cards pasted together, allowing the user to keep it comfortably inside their wallet - or basically wherever else they might need to slide it. This Tile's thinness does not do away with the functionality of the original Tile - there's still a button to tap and connectivity for smartphones of all sorts.

There was a time when item trackers, not the activity or fitness trackers like Fitbit, were the rage among the tech savvy. While that has somewhat died down, things still get lost, from umbrellas to, worse, wallets. Tile, a company that has given “lost and found” a new and modern face, is reviving that market with Tile Slim, which does justice to its name. It is slim enough to fit inside your wallet, making sure you and your wallet will never be far apart again. That said, it is also big enough, like a thin coaster or wide card, so that you won’t lose the Tile Slim itself either.

The Hello Sense sleep tracking device is now available to buy from Target’s website and will be on Best Buy's website soon, and it’ll be heading to their physical stores all over the nation later on this year. The sleep tracker is more than just a tracking device, according to Hello, also helping the user fall asleep and wake back up in the morning. Thus far, the tracker has been available through Amazon and the maker’s website, the latter of which makes the device available internationally.

While Garmin may not be the most popular name in the smartwatch market, it continues to become one of the biggest players with its growing lineup of GPS and sports-focused devices. The company's newest wearable, however, takes a turn towards luxury: the new Fenix Chronos watch includes the health, activity, and location tracking you'd expect from Garmin, but puts it in a handsome, high-end package with leather, steel, and titanium materials.

Polar, known for its previous GPS-equipped fitness trackers, seems to have decided to move away from scaled back, limited-function wearables, as its new M600 device is an all-out Android Wear smartwatch. This means it does far more than just tracking sleep and activity, including features like smartphone notifications, heart rate monitoring, GPS, and the ability to run any number of existing Android Wear apps.

Bluetooth tracking keyfobs have gone from novelty to must-have for many, and TrackR is stepping up its game with custom printing as well as new group support. Roughly the size of a large coin, but just 3.5mm thick, the TrackR Bravo relies on Bluetooth LE to help your phone figure out whereabouts your keys, pets, or anything else might be.

Samsung's newest addition to its Gear line has begun hitting the shelves: the IconX wireless earbuds. We were impressed when we got our hands (ears?) on them back in early June, with high-quality audio maintained even over a Bluetooth connection. But the IconX, which Samsung bills as "truly cord-free earbuds," do much more than just audio output; they're also a fully functional fitness tracker and heart rate monitor.

During Google's Android Wear announcements and presentations at the Google I/O event back in May, we got a few quick looks at a revised app for Google Fit, the health and fitness tracking service for Android. Now, after a long wait, the app is finally seeing an update released this week. Google Fit version 1.57 is rolling out to the Google Play store, featuring an overhauled UI, a customizable widget, and new ways to set goals.

At its Tech World show in San Francisco yesterday, Lenovo revealed a pair of smart shoes, that, while a concept prototype, are fairly close to a finalized product. Adding a new layer to the term "wearable," the running shoes offer most of the same features that a wrist-worn fitness tracker or smartwatch would have, including number of steps, distance, calories burned, and activity tracking.

If you're a Samsung fan and have been eagerly awaiting the new Gear Fit 2 sports band, now's your chance to finally pick one up. The GPS-enabled wearable has officially gone on sale around the globe in a number of markets, including the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. Priced at $179 and available in two sizes, Samsung says that Gear Fit 2 will be available in other countries in the near future.